How long can "contactless finance" last?
——Investigation on financial services during the outbreak of New Coronary Pneumonia
Economic Daily · China Economic Net reporter Qian Qingni
Contactless finance refers to a form of service based on the Internet, mobile phone applications, customer service calls and other carriers, without physical contact with financial institutions such as banks. This form of service has received much attention during the new coronary pneumonia epidemic and has become an important supplement to the normal development of financial services.
During the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, what kind of financial requirements does non-contact finance guarantee? What fintech power is needed to support? Looking ahead, will contactless finance change the current financial landscape? With these questions, reporters from the Economic Daily went into many front-line companies and financial institutions to conduct in-depth investigations.
A sudden new outbreak of pneumonia caused non-contact finance to gradually emerge and became the undisputed protagonist in recent financial business.
On February 1, the People's Bank of China and other five departments issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening Financial Support for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia Epidemic of New Coronavirus Infection", requiring financial institutions to strengthen online services and guide enterprises and residents to conduct financial services online . On February 15, the General Office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Further Improving Financial Services for Outbreak Prevention and Control", requesting the banking and insurance industries to optimize and enrich the "contactless service" channels and provide safe and convenient "at home" financial services . This is the first mention of "contactless" services by financial regulators.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Xinwang Bank, said: "The outbreak of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic may profoundly change the public's thinking and behavior patterns, and is expected to accelerate the changes in financial business structures and service models."
Doing business is not popular
Ms. Sun, who lives in Songmen Town, Wenling City, Zhejiang Province, operates a sugar orchard orchard. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the sugar orange that was originally in the peak season is facing a risk of unsalable sales. In addition, logistics, transportation, and fertilizer prices have increased her business.
However, Lin Qiao, account manager of Wenzhou Songmen Sub-branch of Taizhou Bank, learned the situation through investigation and contacted Ms. Sun through WeChat, telephone, etc., and learned that she urgently needed a fund for liquidity and fertilizer purchases. In order to reduce customer contact, Lin Qiao online instructed Ms. Sun to apply for a loan in the 24-hour mobile business hall. It takes less than 2 days from application to successful approval. In addition to the online loan application, Lin Qiao also directed her to repay the loan online, using the "video teller" to transfer money online.
A person from Taizhou Bank told reporters: "Affected by the epidemic, non-contact financial services have become popular. Taizhou Bank has combined with the small and micro-wisdom platform to actively strengthen financial services in online channels such as online banking, mobile banking, and WeChat banking." According to statistics, From January 20 to April 16, the 24-hour video teller of Taizhou Bank received 33,514 customers and handled a total of 10,848 transactions including transfers and loans. As of the end of March, Taizhou Bank customers had accumulatively applied for 194,340 loans and issued 26,166 loans of 7.883 billion yuan through online channels, of which new customers granted credits of 4.027 billion yuan, accounting for 51.09% of the total credit amount.
The reporter found that after the outbreak of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, many domestic financial institutions have explored contactless finance. In summary, it is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
One is online credit. It is manifested by financial institutions using technological means to allow customers to handle loan business without leaving home. Internet banks such as Wezhong Bank and Xinwang Bank have fully utilized their online advantages, and loan acceptance, approval and issuance are proceeding as usual; China Construction Bank Tibet Branch held an approval meeting through WeChat Group to complete a credit of 130 million yuan; Bozhou Yaodu Rural Commercial Bank The self-developed product "Jinnong Yidai" has the fastest 3 minutes from loan application to fund arrival; immediately consumer finance companies guide customers to use APP, public account and other self-service business, and constantly optimize online service capabilities to provide customers with Internet Self-service channels, no geographical restrictions, and 24-hour full-automatic service response without holidays have effectively solved the problem of customers' "fast" and "urgent" consumer credit services.
The second is payment settlement. With the support of the People’s Bank of China, the banking industry has liberalized the service limit for small-value payment systems and extended the time limit for large-value payment systems to meet the needs of various fund transfers 7x24 hours. Alternative solutions are proposed item by item; for cross-border remittances and other highly complex businesses, some banks have strengthened up-down linkages and increased the timeliness of processing through the cross-border payment system (CIPS).
The third is remote support. Some banks provide customers with services such as contactless wealth management consulting and automatic extension of fixed deposits and maturities. Bank of China Zhejiang Branch launched a smart ordering service in Wenzhou for its own canteens such as enterprise parks and hospitals. Users can log in to BOC Mobile Banking to complete online orders, and canteens can arrange delivery after receiving orders; Wuhan Zhongbang The bank uses its own cloud computing capabilities to build a complete remote office environment for all employees, integrates cloud desktops and cloud applications, and through a unified cloud office entrance, all employees of the bank can access the cloud desktop online office through smart devices at any time and any place.
In addition, some financial institutions have also applied fintech capabilities to epidemic prevention and control. For example, China Construction Bank has developed an on-line “CCB Smart Community Management Platform” for civil affairs departments and communities at all levels to help urban and rural communities build an “online + offline” three-dimensional prevention and control system.
Fintech becomes a powerful support
The reporter learned that the contactless financial services launched by many financial institutions during the epidemic were based on financial technology investment in the past few years.
As a national joint-stock bank in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Zheshang Bank issued more than 5.4 billion loans through online business in the first quarter, and has served more than 4,600 small and micro enterprises through automatic increment services, with more than 2.5 billion loans.
Behind these non-contact financial services is the Bank's long-term use and accumulation of the Internet and big data in the process of professionally serving small and micro enterprises, making small and micro financial services platformized, digitalized and intelligent.
Zheshang Bank has implemented small business financial service process reengineering with the goals of “online application, mobile investigation, data review, model approval, self-service repayment, post-loan automation” since 2018. With more than one hundred points, these basic functions have laid a solid foundation for the transfer of offline services to online. For example, the bank has established an online loan application portal, and customers can apply for and submit materials online through Zheshang Bank's "Small and Wealth Shop" APP, WeChat Official Account, and Mini Program. Throughout the process, the bank also used face recognition and other technologies to identify the true identity of the customer, and collected customer information legally and in compliance with the "must and minimum" principle.
In addition, the bank also automatically analyzes customer-related credit information, business, tax and other data information, quickly builds a "portrait" for customers from behavior data, transaction data, attribute data, and capability evaluation data, and cooperates with the big data credit model To make judgments on whether to borrow or not to borrow, or to borrow more and less within a few minutes.
"The application of blockchain technology to supply chain finance is also a major innovation in services. By giving full play to the technical characteristics of blockchain technology information sharing credibility, non-tampering, non-repudiation, and traceability, we pioneered the'Receivable Chain Platform' ', and combined with different application scenarios to successively develop and launch blockchain order pass, warehouse receipt pass, distribution pass, etc., can provide flexible and efficient financial services for small and micro enterprises upstream and downstream of core enterprises." Pratt & Whitney Financial Enterprise, Head Office of Zheshang Bank The relevant person in charge of the ministry said that, in compliance with the requirements of the regulatory authorities, the bank opened bank accounts for customers online, signed loan contracts online, and provided repayment services online, giving contactless financial services a broader scope Use space.
Thanks to the pioneering innovation of intelligent robots in the past two years, during the epidemic, China Merchants Consumer Finance Company continued to accelerate the iterative AI research and development, and enabled about 5000 China Merchants intelligent robot services to cover as many scenarios as possible to remind customers. service. According to reports, the intelligent robot independently developed by China Merchants Finance has the characteristics of low cost, multi-scenarios, high output, high efficiency, and easy tracking. It can recognize more than 200 user intentions with an accuracy rate of up to 99%, and has undertaken 95 % Customer service and post-loan asset management have effectively improved service quality and customer experience.
The person in charge of the relevant department of Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank told reporters that in 2019, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank's mobile channel was completely upgraded and revised, and mobile banking 5.0 was launched, which greatly improved its mobile service capabilities. During the epidemic, the new version of mobile banking carried a large number of offline business outlets and maintained stable operations to meet the financial service needs of users during their stay.
Not only that, the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank has realized the entire process of personal loan online, from online marketing, customer acquisition, application, review to lending, the entire process has been completed online, you can apply for a loan through the WeChat applet, the fastest 3 minutes You can make loans, which also guarantees the smooth implementation of non-contact financial services during the epidemic.
Digital service problems to be solved
However, seemingly powerful contactless financial services still face many difficulties. Many industry insiders said that due to the current imperfect basic data, the coverage of the external big data is limited. Many data are only applicable to regional markets, and financial institutions need to speed up the deployment of personnel and equipment by attracting technical supporters and improve them in a gradual manner.
Not only that, due to the scattered distribution of individual industrial and commercial households or small business owners, and the large differences in customer types and credit qualifications, under the premise of non-contact, financial institutions face greater challenges in designing efficient and convenient business models that can control operational risks. At the same time, because the risk control method of small and micro-credit has a scene-oriented feature and a high degree of homogeneity with the target consumer group of ordinary consumer credit, how to balance the development cost and risk control also puts a test on financial institutions.
"Digital capabilities are the foundation of contactless services, and digital transformation is the mainstream trend in the development of financial services." Immediately, the relevant person in charge of consumer finance companies said that the outbreak of the new coronary pneumonia catalyzed the accelerated development of this process, but this also raised the company's technical capabilities. Higher requirements.
As an artificial intelligence technology service provider, Yu Jia, head of the "Fourth Paradigm" Product Commercialization Committee, said that the rise of contactless financial services has triggered new demand for risk control. Intelligent risk control capabilities are the foundation for ensuring business development. "Intelligence Risk control technology is the key to help financial companies improve risk control efficiency, reduce risk management costs, and balance financial innovation and risk."
"Finance has the characteristic of lagging feedback. At the same time, the financial industry is affected by macro factors, regulation, and markets, and there is more uncertainty. Any change in any link or element requires changes to the corresponding system and model." 360 Finance Chief Scientist Zhang Jiaxing said that finance is cyclical, and technical support and foreshadowing are to learn and infer from the existing things and facts, and to predict the future based on historical data, but finance is difficult to predict.
Because of the above difficulties, financial technology has higher requirements for comprehensive technical capabilities. Industry experts said that the core of finance is risk control, and the core of risk control comes from credit. At present, there are still a large number of people who do not cover credit in China, which requires the use of technical methods to mine information and give personal credit ratings.
A person in charge of a joint-stock commercial bank told reporters that to form a business model of continuous service for inclusive customers, the bank must solve the four major problems of “reducing capital costs, controlling risk costs, saving operating costs, and improving reproducibility”. Contactless finance is not only a change in the customer service model, but also a major adjustment to the restructuring of internal processes and the transformation of business philosophy in banks. At present, all kinds of banks are exploring the non-contact financial service model, but the overall is in the early stages of development, and the effect still needs time to test.
In fact, digital transformation means changing the existing organizational structure and existing system capabilities of financial institutions. The entire contactless finance poses new challenges to the business model and operating model, which is difficult for many institutions. At the same time, contactless finance poses more challenges to system security, stability, and risk control capabilities, and it is difficult for most institutions to support comprehensive online operations.
The non-contact concept will continue
Despite the difficulties, the industry believes that the epidemic has changed the way the public participates in financial activities to a certain extent, and the concepts and needs of non-contact financial services that have been spawned will not disappear as the epidemic alleviates, but will further deepen. "This imposes higher requirements on financial services and also brings new opportunities." Dong Ximiao believes that financial institutions should strategically focus on non-contact financial services, timely revise and improve internal systems that conflict with non-contact, and build institutions that meet the requirements. Ability to contact the financial service system, improve service capabilities, enhance customer experience, and promote business development.
Currently, more and more customers have developed the habit of conducting business online. "Contactless services accelerate the online development of the financial industry, extend services in the digital world in an all-round way, and are no longer restricted by traditional offline business, truly enabling financial digital transformation." Yu Jia said.
Many insiders judged that online operation capabilities can obtain more private domain traffic and more active customers. Personalized and customized services centered on customers will become the core services of the financial industry. For example, in the past, credit card processing required customers to go to the bank counter, but now more than half of the applications can be completed online; wealth management business can be processed through online banking.
"In the future, for financial institutions, the relevant data left by customers in the institution will be extremely valuable and differentiated information. How to use data analysis methods such as artificial intelligence to accurately portray customers, and then adopt differentiation and individual Actions to achieve precise marketing and operation of multi-service, cross-scenario and full-link customer lifecycles, and to establish deeper connections with customers will become the main point of force for financial institutions." Yu Jia said, taking banks as an example , Intelligent big data application is the core ability of banks to win in the next ten years.
Not only that, the development of contactless financial services has a lower cost advantage. With the continuous maturity of various technologies and the continuous improvement of the 5G application environment, more new scenarios will emerge in the future. During the epidemic, with the support of the Shenzhen Taxation Bureau and Tencent's blockchain business, after three parties' remote development and debugging, Evergrande Group successfully launched the blockchain electronic invoice system, and opened a real estate in Evergrande's real estate in Pingshan, Shenzhen. The country's first real estate sales blockchain electronic invoice was issued. In the industry's view, contactless services such as "on-chain" can enable real-time inspection of invoices and improve the accuracy of inspection information, thereby improving the efficiency of supply chain financial services.
"The outbreak of the epidemic has accelerated the development of non-contact finance. Non-contact finance will gradually increase financial universality. The gradual development and growth of non-contact finance will be one of the important signs of the new economic era." During the epidemic period, traditional finance suffered a certain impact, which is a rare opportunity period for contactless finance. Contactless finance is an extension of online finance. Especially during the epidemic, the market’s need for digital transformation of the financial industry has never been this way. Strongly, the digital transformation of banks has become a general trend.
The person in charge of the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank said that contactless financial services will become an important supplement to existing financial services. With the advent of the 5G era and the rapid development of the Internet, users are more inclined to efficient and convenient contactless financial services. "We believe that in addition to contactless finance, all industries will develop contactless services. Previously due to factors such as systems and habits, non-contact Contact service faces a relatively large development bottleneck in the fields of production and education. However, as the epidemic reshapes the behavior of financial services, we have reason to believe that contactless service will usher in better development."